Heretofore, self-cooling beverage containers have not met with widespread commercial success owing to a variety of design deficiencies. Complexity of design structure has rendered many known devices as impractical. Safety, in some cases, has presented a concern. The opportunity for contact between the refrigerant and beverage creates a risk of altering beverage quality at best and toxicity to the consumer at worst. Further, other known devices wherein the refrigerant is vented in association with the tab opening of the container presented a serious safety hazard. When vented, the evaporating refrigerant was expelled upwards towards the face of the consumer with liquid particles of refrigerant being borne within the refrigerant vapor. This problem was addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,852,975 to Beck which teaches a container provided with a safety shield to protect the consumer from the upwardly expelled spray. Inefficiency of refrigeration and/or environmental concerns have been other deficiencies of known devices.